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IPhoto
iPhoto is the application bundled with Macs and iPads for managing photos; this page is about importing pictures (and video) from Republic Wireless phones into iPhoto smoothly. The information here probably applies to Apple's professional photo-management application Aperture since both applications use the background program called Image Capture to do the importing. Describe more methods here! So far there are two know-to-work methods discussed here: 1) "mounting" the SD card--making its files available-- on the Mac, 2) syncing with The Missing Sync for Android. For the mounting method to work, the camera app on the phone must be set to store the pictures on the SD card. You can mount the SD with a USB cable, or by physically connecting the SD card, and possibly by Bluetooth or WiFi. iPhoto import should work if a) the transfer works using USB, and b) you have another method that mounts the phone's SD card file system on the Mac or iPad. There are cloud photo services other than iPhoto of course. Besides Missing Sync, there is another WiFi-based sync called AirSync. It may be possible to sync photos either over the internet through Apple's iCloud sync service. iPhoto and specific Republic Phones When iPhoto is installed on a Mac, by default it takes over the photo-import process. When you plug a camera into the computer via USB, iPhoto launches and, if there are any new pictures to import from the camera, asks whether you want to do so. The user isn't conscious of what directories the image files are copying from and to, but the import feature makes use of the DCIM standard for naming picture files on cameras, that almost all digital cameras adhere to, although not all perfectly. Here are the phones with known issues with iPhoto. Defy XT (issue + fix) Problem: ''' With the Defy XT, "Turn on USB Storage" works, pops up an image of your SD card on the Desktop, and opens iPhoto, but doesn't offer to import new pictures. '''Solution: There is a free app from the Google Play Store that makes the connection work: DCIM Helper. Once you install it, run it once to turn it on with the default settings. Now, whenever you've taken pictures, then do the "Turn on USB Storage" connected the Mac, iPhoto pops up ready to import the new pics. The long story is that the Android base software has a bug which some companies patch but Motorola hasn't with the current Defy XT software. The phone's Camera app misnames and misfiles the picture files, violating the DCIM standard. And iPhoto is picky about it. This page describes the problem, and leads to this discussion about the bug on the Android developer forum. From the same discussion, there's an entry by the author of both "Camera DCIM," and the later DCIM Helper, which he says is a better solution. It's an app that sits in the background and refiles the badly-filed pictures. File system mounting methods other than USB Something must be said about Wifi, Bluetooth and web-based mounting methods. Third-Party Sync Software Missing Sync for Android: works This is a product that is free on the Android side but you pay for the PC/Mac-side software. On Macs, it does sync photos and videos to iPhoto, and it does not need DCIM Helper to do so. (It syncs correctly, but seemingly less efficiently, with DCIM Helper turned on. --Smagedy) It works through USB, WiFi or Bluetooth. It can also sync a selected folder of photos in iPhoto out to the phone. It also can sync other data such as Contacts, Calendar, call logs, txt logs and notes. Each kind of data has a separate on/off switch and settings. AirSync AirSync claims to work between Androids and iPhoto. If you've tried it, please edit this section.